


suspension of disbelief

by nightfurious



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Among Us, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Gratuitous italics, Humor, Suspense, an episode-like plot told in the tone of the show, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27671113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightfurious/pseuds/nightfurious
Summary: Because,of course,if they had to get stuck in a video game setting and forced to act it out, it would have to be the one game Donnie could never win. That was just his luck.He didnotwant to deal with this right now.(or, the boys wake up in among us irl. as donnie observes, this is very odd.)
Relationships: Donatello & Leonardo & Michelangelo & April O'Neil & Raphael (TMNT)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 35





	1. donnie observes that this place is not, in fact, run of the mill pizza

**Author's Note:**

> written for the november rottmnt art exchange!! had a blast writing this, i hope you guys enjoy reading it!

**CREWMATE**

**There is 1 Imposter among us.**

Donnie opened his eyes.

Odd, really. Not the fact that he opened his eyes, of course, but that he opened them to a brightly lit room with no hesitation or pain whatsoever; it was as though his eyes were already adjusted, despite the fact that he knew they hadn’t been opened for a short while. Stranger still was that there was no lag, no fatigue, nothing to indicate that he had just woken up. He was fully conscious and alert from the moment his eyelids parted.

Like he said. Odd.

Yet he wouldn’t think about all this for a while, because the much more pressing matter at hand was the cold linoleum floor against his back and fluorescent white lights glaring at him from above. Donnie did not recognize these lights, nor had he any idea how he got here, and so he did what any self-respecting turtle would do in such a situation: he panicked.

And, clearly, that _was_ what every turtle did in this situation. Because he heard three other turtles around him start panicking at the same time.

A voice he recognized as Mikey shouted in alarm, and from somewhere on Donnie’s right came a dumbfounded “ _bwuh?_ ” from Raph. From Donnie’s left, there was the sound of a table— _a table?_ —scraping across the floor, and when adrenaline finally electrified him upright, he saw it was Leo, glaring around the room like a deer in headlights.

The four of them gaped at each other for several seconds.

Then Leo pushed off the table he was bracing himself against and said, “So. I take it you guys don’t know why we’re here either.”

“Not a clue,” Mikey said, and he sounded entirely too nonchalant, and— ugh. Donnie did _not_ have the energy to deal with… whatever this was.

Well, they might as well get it over with quickly. 

Upon first glance, the room they were in looked like a cafeteria, based on Donnie’s limited experience with them. Tables—five or six of them, if he had to guess—were scattered across the floor, and there were three doors that he could see, one in front of him and one on either side. There were a few strange interfaces on the walls, too; one looked like a big box attached to the wall with a lightning bolt on it, one like an overwhelmingly simple computer, and another like a closed chute with a lever beside it.

This place looked familiar. Donnie had a feeling he knew why. He did not want to acknowledge it.

When he looked back, he found that his brothers seemed to have followed his example in investigating, and he caught Raph’s eye just in time to see his face light up. “Hey, guys!” Raph called, stepping up to the table closest to them. “Look at this, there’s a big red button!”

He flipped a glass case onto its side to expose said button, and Donnie’s heart skipped a beat.

“ _No!_ ” He and Leo lunged forward at the same time, Leo slamming the glass case shut, Donnie bracing himself between Raph’s arm and the table like his life depended on it, because maybe it did, and why would Raph go around pressing big red buttons in a room none of them knew?! “Do you not remember what happened the _last_ time you went around pressing big red buttons willy nilly?”

Raph blinked, then realization dawned on his face, and he stepped back. His common sense must have kicked in and reminded him that he definitely did _not_ want to be trapped in a small room with his brothers for twenty-four hours straight, _again_. “Oh, uh, right. Sorry, Donnie.”

Behind him, from where he stood guard over the button, Leo made a questioning noise. “Hey, Dee, check this out. There are papers here.”

“Papers?”

Donnie turned around, and sure enough, there were four sheets of paper lying neatly on the table, printed in a typewriter font on what looked to be cardstock. Curiously, each sheet had a colorful sheen to it—either red, purple, blue, or orange—and, most strangely, the purple one was the only one with words on it. Frowning, he scooped that one up.

_Electrical: Calibrate Distributor_

_Reactor: Start Reactor_

Donnie stopped reading.

He knew exactly where they were. But again, he chose to ignore it. Because no, he did _not_ want to deal with this right now.

Unfortunately, Mikey didn’t seem to feel the same. His eyes roved over the orange paper, and he let out a high-pitched, excited squeal. “ _Guys!_ Is this— are we in _Among Us_?”

Because of course they were. Donnie didn’t even _want_ to question it.

Because it was just his luck that if they had to get stuck in a video game setting and forced to act it out, it would, _of course,_ be the one Donnie could never win, because his _adorable, loving, wonderful, strong,_ **_sadistic_ ** littlest brother had memorized every tool of the trade almost before the four of them even started playing. Michelangelo had been kicking their butts since the beginning, had only gotten better since, and never _once_ found it in him to go easy on his family. Donnie had, quite often, considered cheating, just to wipe that smug smirk off Mikey’s face, and he certainly would have done so if April didn’t have the horrible ability to both read his mind and get him to do whatever she wanted. And so, Mikey remained undefeated, Donnie humiliated, and the four of them stuck on what looked to be the Skeld.

This was turning out to be a fantastic day.

“What? How does that even make _sense?_ ” Leo demanded, snatching up the blue list. “This has all gotta be some elaborate set. Donnie, what did you do?”

“Wh— _me?_ I didn’t do anything!”

Raph took the last paper, frowning. “I think we would’ve noticed if he was building something like this right under our noses.”

Odd, Donnie thought, again. The paper seemed to be personalized to them, if they could all read the other lists. Mystic paper, maybe? That didn’t sound too far-fetched.

“Okay, then explain how something like this place _exists._ And, for that matter,” Leo added, “how we _got_ here.”

Which, come to think of it, was a great question. Last Donnie checked, they’d been on their way to meet April for pizza. 

“Well, uh, obviously, we, um—”

Donnie groaned loudly. “What does it matter? It’s not like this is the _weirdest_ thing that’s ever happened to us. Let’s just get these tasks done so the game ends and we can all go home.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Mikey cut in. “If we all have tasks, then that means we’re Crewmates, which would mean— there’s an Imposter somewhere on the ship, isn’t there?”

The air seemed to chill as those words cut into Leo and Raph, but Donnie just scoffed. “The four of us all have tasks, and it looks like we’re the only ones here. And if this thing is one big, elaborate hologram—which is what I’m placing my bet on, by the way—there’s no way something like _that_ is gonna hurt us.”

“Uh, should we really be taking that chance?” Raph said, voice wavering. “Because, you know, in the game, the Crewmates, uh… die.”

“Okay, well, maybe we should all stick together to do our tasks,” said Leo. “If we never let each other out of our sight, we can’t get hurt.”

“But that goes against the spirit of the game!” Mikey cried.

Donnie raised an eyebrow at him. “Weren’t you just the one who brought up Imposters in the first place?”

“And _you_ were the one who said you wanted to get this done as fast as possible!” he shot back. “If we go our separate ways, we can get our tasks done quicker and get out of here. Besides, the whole point is that the game is supposed to be a mystery. If we stick together the whole time, there’s no mystery to any of it!”

It seemed odd, Mikey arguing not to stay with them, but Donnie supposed if anyone would want to get into the spirit of the game, it would be their resident champ. Besides, he couldn’t fault his logic. “I _did_ say that, and getting out of here _does_ sound ideal.”

Mikey brightened and started off. “Great! Let’s go!”

“Guys, come on, are you guys sure about this?” Raph reached out to stop Mikey, who barely slowed. “We don’t know anything about—”

“Relax, Raph. We’ll get to the bottom of it while we sort through our tasks.” When Raph didn’t look convinced, Donnie sighed, and his voice softened. “We’ll be safe. Don’t worry.”

“C’mon, guys, let’s get this done!” Mikey called, dashing toward what Donnie was pretty sure was the weapons bay. “And once we’re out of here, let’s get some _pizza!_ ”

Leo looked at Raph, shrugged, and patted him on the shoulder. “Guess that’s that. I’ve got some tasks this way, so I’ll see you around.” 

Raph’s face fell as he watched Leo head for the hallway leading to the upper engine. Donnie sighed again.

“I’ve got some tasks down door number three,” he said, gesturing to the third and final hallway, toward storage. “Do you want to, uh…”

Raph’s eyes flickered with gratitude, but he shook his head. “Thanks, Donnie, but I’ve got one in here. And you’re right, the faster we get these done, the faster we’ll get out of here.”

Donnie nodded slowly. “Be safe, Raph.”

His brother’s eyes brightened and he nodded. “You too, Donnie.”

The moment Donnie stepped over the threshold into the hallway, the doors behind him slammed shut.


	2. leo finds that refilling engines is not therapy, and really, nothing bad ever happens in electrical

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> leo and donnie find themselves in a mexican standoff, and other stories

**CREWMATE**

**There is 1 Imposter among us.**

Something on this ship stunk, and Leo was pretty sure it wasn’t Raph.

Well, he couldn’t be fully sure. But it wasn’t that kind of stink anyway, so it didn’t matter. Something about this whole situation was _wrong,_ and Leo intended to find out what it was. 

First and most glaringly obvious was that there had to be an Imposter somewhere on the ship, right? But all four of his brothers had task lists on the table, and they all seemed equally shocked to have woken up in the cafeteria. That meant one of two things: one, the Imposter was hiding, and very well; or two, the Imposter was masquerading as one of his brothers, and _very_ well.

Neither of those options left a good taste in Leo’s mouth. 

He’d hoped that as he burned through his tasks, his anxiety levels would fall. The more they completed, the closer they were to getting off this ship, after all. Carting a can of gas through the hallways wasn’t very therapeutic, though, and he only got more antsy the longer he went without seeing any sign of the Imposter. If there even _was_ one. And not knowing that just made him feel worse. 

The only thing he _did_ see in the hallways was Mikey, which scared him so bad he almost gave up the ghost right then. His little brother had just stepped out of Security when Leo passed by with the gas can, which Leo barely kept from spilling on him. “Mikey! Wh- don’t _scare_ me like that!”

Mikey just laughed. “Sorry, Leo.”

Leo huffed and said, “What were you doing in there anyway?”

“Wires. Next stop, Electrical. Where are you going?”

“Engine,” he answered, holding up the can. “And I think I’ve got a task in Electrical, too, so maybe I’ll see you there.”

“Ooh, good idea! We can watch each other!”

Leo was pretty sure there weren’t any visual tasks in Electrical, he knew that much, but maybe playing in person had different rules. He grinned. “Great idea, Mike. Let me finish this first, though.”

Mikey nodded, and Leo finished the trek to the upper engine. He paused before heading back to Storage, though; maybe the samples in Medbay would be done scanning by now. It was worth checking. They were, according to his little blue piece of paper that somehow edited itself whenever he completed part of a task, so he started that way.

Turns out, he wasn’t the only one that had the idea to come to Medbay. 

He was halfway to the computer when footsteps drew his attention back to the door, and he reached for his odachi on reflex before remembering, of course, the simulation didn’t bring their weapons along for the ride. It was just Donnie in the doorway, though. Well, allegedly Donnie.

“Leo,” Donnie said by way of greeting. Apparently, he was of the same mind.

“Donnie,” Leo said with a nod, equally suspicious.

They paused, watching each other, and something occurred to Leo. “Wait, do you have to submit a scan?”

“Hm? How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess. And also, I have to do samples.”

Donnie was still frowning at him, so Leo huffed. “That means come here. It’s visual, right? I’ll watch you.”

At that, his brother’s eyes flashed, and, with his mind made up, he started toward the scanner. Leo flashed him a grin and headed for the machine that held the samples he was supposed to analyze. It was, just like in the game, almost insultingly easy to find the anomaly, and he pressed the little button that carried the samples up and away again.

Behind him, the scanner whirred to life, and he turned to find green light encasing Donnie, whirling up and around him, and the turtle inside glaring at him with distrust. “Did you actually just do anything?” he demanded.

“Uh, what? Of course I did, could you not see?”

Donnie’s frown deepened. “No, I couldn’t. Your hands faded out when you got close to the computer.”

“Huh. I guess we’re not supposed to see each other doing tasks. Just like in the game.”

“That’s not reassuring,” Donnie hissed. “Although it does reinforce my theory that this entire setting is a hologram. And if your hands faded out, maybe you’re part of it. Maybe _you’re_ the Imposter!” he added, curling up defensively, almost stepping out of the scan.

Leo rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure. Anyway, if you want to shadow me, I’ll be refilling the lower engine.”

“Gonna vent there, _Imposter?_ ”

“First of all, this vent doesn’t run there. Second of all, I’m not the Imposter. Third of all, _bye._ ”

He left Donnie behind, still glaring at him from within his green prison, but at least Leo was sure the Imposter was neither of them. 

On his way back to Storage to refill the gas can, he spotted Mikey still in Security. Odd. Usually their resident pro was more of a proactive player. Maybe playing in person was making him more cautious, which was understandable. Leo shrugged it off.

Raph bumbled into Storage while the can was filling. He barely seemed to notice Leo, but Leo kept a wary eye on him, and he watched Raph step up to a lever on the wall, glance at his task list, then yank the lever. Leo could hear rumbling in the chute, and through a window on Raph’s right, they both watched trash go floating away into a starry landscape. (A fake image, definitely, because Leo might have a panic attack if it turned out they were actually in _space._ )

Leo frowned. So it wasn’t Raph, and it wasn’t Donnie, and it wasn’t Leo himself. But it wasn’t Mikey either, right?

Right?

“Hey, Raph,” he called, and his big brother jumped.

“Leo! What, uh, what are you— _whoa!_ ”

Leo blinked. “Uh, what?”

“Your hands, they’re, uh, uh, they’re gone?!”

“Huh?” He looked down, and no, his hands were definitely still there. Then he remembered what Donnie said earlier. “ _Oh!_ Oh, no, you just can’t see them. Apparently our hands are supposed to fade when we do tasks so the others can’t see.”

“Oh.” Raph took a deep breath. “Right. That’s right, Mikey mentioned that earlier.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, his hands did the same thing. We were in, uh, Navigation, I think, and he had to do wires, and when he reached up to the box his hands faded away.”

Leo’s brow furrowed. “Was anything in the box moving around?”

“Well, no, but I can’t see anything happening in front of you, either.”

Interesting. Very interesting, indeed.

Leo watched his brother for a moment, even as the gas can automatically stopped filling. Raph looked like the definition of anxiety: he was wringing his hands, glancing between all the hallways branching off of Storage, hardly looking at Leo himself. His task list was crumpled, even made out of such sturdy material as it was. Leo couldn’t read what was on it, but that was to be expected; he hadn’t been able to read any besides the blue one in the cafeteria, either. At least he knew there were real tasks on his brother’s red one. He wished he could show Raph that his tasks were real, too, if it’d make him feel better.

“Are you alright, big brother?” he said finally.

Raph jolted, almost as if he’d forgotten Leo was there, and offered a weak smile. “Yeah, I’m… I’m alright. Let’s just finish up this game so we can get out of here.”

Leo snorted. “I heard _that._ Once this is over, let’s just order pizza to-go and head home.”

“Home sounds nice,” Raph responded quietly. 

He was too far away to give him a hug and Leo didn’t want to spook him by approaching, so he just offered a reassuring grin and hefted the gas can. “Then, I’ll get back to my tasks. Good luck, Raph.”

“You too, Leo.”

With that, Leo made his way back to the lower engine and tipped the can into the gas tank, thinking. Maybe Mikey had a visual task he could watch. Once he knew all his brothers were safe, they could get to finding the Imposter. 

He paused before leaving the lower engine, and backtracked up to Security. Mikey wasn’t inside. 

Yeah, okay, that wasn’t really a problem. Leo had been with Raph for several minutes, so maybe Mikey got bored and went to do other tasks. He couldn’t have gone through Storage or else Leo would have seen him, but he could’ve gone north past Medbay. So his disappearance in itself wasn’t threatening.

Still, Leo didn’t like it. 

He headed back to Storage to return the gas can; Raph was gone, and the room was empty. Leo glanced around anyway, just in case, before turning to face Electrical. Just looking at the room made his heart pound in his throat, but he had a task in there. 

It would be fine. All he had to do was divert power to Shields. It would take all of two seconds, and he’d hightail it out of there. 

The room was dimly lit, which seemed like an irritatingly purposeful design choice, and Leo eyed the shadowed corners warily as he stepped into the back of the room. He made a beeline for the interface he needed, which was horrifically close to the vent, and crouched to get it over with. 

The vent popped open, and Leo’s brain shorted out.

 _Run,_ was his first thought. Shock kept him rooted to the floor.

 _What the heck is that,_ was his second thought, because actually, what the heck _was_ that? It was vaguely turtle-shaped, but it was standing in the corner, completely hidden, and Leo wasn’t sure if it was obscured by the dark or if it was just _made out of the dark._ Both seemed plausible, and he didn’t get the chance to deliberate on it when the thing launched itself at him.

It didn’t seem to have a knife, which was reassuring.

That was the only good thing about this situation, though, because the thing took advantage of Leo’s freeze reaction and had him on the ground in two hits, still completely hidden by shadow even though it was in the light now, _what the heck is this thing?!_ At least Leo’s shell hitting the floor jolted him into finally counterattacking. The thing was super strong, able to ignore Leo’s hits like they were nothing, but it didn’t seem exactly well-trained, which meant it couldn’t be one of his brothers. 

So imagine his surprise when he finally got this shadow figure pinned to the ground and a familiar voice cried out, “Wait!”

The black coating the figure vanished like a setting turned off, and there was Mikey below Leo, and all Leo could do was stare at him, dumbfounded and betrayed, shocked enough to make the same mistake twice. He froze, and Mikey—no, that can’t be Mikey, _the Imposter_ —took advantage of it again. It wrenched its hand from Leo’s grip and delivered a brutal punch to his gut, enough to knock him off. To his horror, it looked prone to kick his head like a soccer ball when there were footsteps in the hallway, and a hulking figure appeared outside, this one thankfully illuminated clearly.

“Leo?!” Raph yelped, and he dashed inside. The Imposter, cloaked once again, leapt back toward the vent, which slammed shut behind it.

“I’m fine, I’m— _oof_ —” When he tried to sit up, his entire abdomen flared with the promise of an extremely colorful bruise.

“What happened?!”

“Get us out of here, _get us out of Electrical, please_ —”

Raph nodded and scooped him up, dashing into the well-lit hallway as fast as he could manage. As he ran, Leo said hurriedly, “Raph, I know who the Imposter is. We have to— _ow_ — we have to call an emergency meeting.”

“Al- alright,” Raph said hesitantly, and then his face lit up. “Wait, does that mean…”

“That’s right, bro. You get to hit the big red button.”


	3. the real imposter stands up before raph decides to file a missing persons report

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "i would've gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for those meddling turtles!"

**CREWMATE**

**There is 1 Imposter among us.**

“So, is there a reason you called us all here, or did Raph just decide to hit the big red button?”

Raph shot Donnie a wounded look, but Leo ignored them and said, without preamble, “I know who the Imposter is. I got attacked in Electrical.”

“Do tell,” Donnie said, sounding bored, “since _I’m_ pretty sure it’s _you_ who’s the Imposter.”

With a flourish, Leo wound his arm up and pointed. “It was _you!_ ”

Raph turned his head obediently and blinked in surprise.

“ _Me?!_ ” Mikey yelped, pointing at himself. “But I was doing tasks! I have a task list, same as you guys!”

Raph’s eyes flicked back to Leo.

“Really?” Leo snarled. “So what were you doing in Electrical when you vented and _attacked_ me?!”

Raph’s head swiveled back to Mikey.

“I wasn’t _in_ Electrical, I had a task in Reactor!”

“But— but you said earlier you had—”

“Yeah, and then I _did_ that task, because you took _forever_ and we can’t watch each other do tasks anyway!”

Leo’s eyes sparkled vindictively. “Oh, yeah? How’d you get from Security, to Electrical, to Reactor without me seeing, then? I was in that hallway the whole time!” 

“I’m not buying it,” Donnie deadpanned.

But he was looking at Leo, not Mikey, and Leo whirled and gestured dangerously with his arms as he shouted, “You can’t just _blame me_ when you have _no proof_ just because you couldn’t watch me analyze samples!”

Donnie ignored him and turned to Raph. “So how do we vote?”

Raph’s eyes widened. “Uh, shouldn’t we _not_ vote? Since that would, you know, _kill_ whoever gets voted off? I don’t want to hurt you guys!”

“Yes, _buuut,_ I still think this whole thing is a hologram, which means we can’t die.” Why did Donnie sound so unbothered by this? “So let’s just vote out Leo and get this over with.”

Leo turned his eyes to the ceiling, covered his face with both hands, and groaned loud enough to rattle the lights.

“Okay, guys, listen, there has to be a way to figure this out besides voting,” Raph continued, holding his hands up to placate them. “How do we even know the Imposter is one of us, instead of something else hiding on the ship?”

“Because I _saw_ him!” Leo fumed.

“Allegedly,” Donnie muttered, and Leo grabbed him by the plastron, threatening to punch. Donnie looked unfazed.

“Leo, that’s kinda sus,” Mikey chipped in, and— whoo boy, Raph was pretty sure his blue brother was about to commit murder before the Imposter got the chance.

“Pray tell, _Michelangelo von Imposter,_ how am _I_ the one that’s _sus?!_ ”

“Guys, please,” Raph tried again. “Is there something we can watch each other do? Something to prove it’s not you guys?”

Leo and Mikey both turned to their task lists, one more willingly than the other. Mikey frowned. “I don’t have any visual tasks.”

“I don’t either,” Leo said, but then his scowl turned up dangerously. “ _Buuut,_ I do still have to swipe my card! That’s a common task, right? Tell me, _Mikey,_ do you have that one?”

“Yeah, of course,” Mikey answered, shooting him a look Raph couldn’t really read, which was odd. 

“Oh, I do, too,” Donnie cut in, glancing at his own list. Raph had it, too, but he’d already done it earlier—at the same time that he’d had to upload data to Admin, just before finding Leo crumpled in Electrical.

Raph breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, so let’s go do that. That should settle things, right?”

Donnie didn’t look convinced, but Leo spoke before they could hear any protests. “Yes! Let’s! I’d love to see _my dear brother, Mikey,_ swipe his card for us.”

The four of them made their way to Admin—thankfully, the meeting just let them leave without voting—and Donnie was first in line to swipe his card, hands disappearing when he got close. As he did, Mikey looked up at Raph. “Do we really have to do this? Why don’t we just vote for Leo?”

Raph frowned at him. “It can’t hurt, right?”

The card reader didn’t blink any color, but Donnie looked satisfied and stepped away, his arms fading back into view. Leo leapt up next and announced, “Watch _this!_ ”

Mikey turned to stare at the floor. Raph was starting to get unnerved. This all seemed very un-Mikey-like; maybe he really _was_ the Imposter.

“ _Aha!_ ” Leo cried triumphantly, though again, the reader hadn’t reacted. “Your turn, _Imposter!_ ”

Before Mikey could even look up, a shrill sound cut through the air like a knife, and the lights started flashing red. Raph nearly leapt out of his shell, and if their shouts of surprise were any indication, so had his brothers; his suspicions only grew when he realized Mikey hadn’t leapt _into_ his shell. 

Leo and Donnie were all business immediately. “Which alarm is it?” Donnie demanded. “O2 is right here, but—”

“It’s the reactor!” Leo interrupted, holding up his task list. “Come on, we’ve got twenty-five seconds! I don’t want to find out what happens if we don’t make it!”

He shoved through the doorway, Donnie right on his heels, Raph and Mikey close behind. Raph would’ve been uneasy being so close to Mikey if Leo didn’t keep glancing back at them every two steps. Maybe he should’ve believed Leo in the first place, but even if he had, they still weren’t sure how to vote. And he definitely didn’t want to risk being wrong.

They reached the reactor in record time, and since Leo and Donnie were in the lead, they were the ones to slam their hands on the scanners. The little bar ran up the scanner, and back down.

Nothing happened.

Donnie grunted, the sound almost lost under another ear-piercing alarm, and slapped the scanner again. Nothing changed. “Why isn’t it— is it because we don’t have five fingers?!”

“Come on, scanner, come _on!_ ” Leo shouted, pushing harder. 

Raph made the mistake of looking down at his task list, which said they had fifteen seconds left. Anxiety pulsed through him like a pure adrenaline shot, and he walked up and shoved Donnie aside, using his own hand on the scanner. Still, nothing happened. “Mikey!” he shouted over his shoulder. “You try! Maybe— maybe— I don’t know, just— this has to— _huh?_ ”

A sound that wasn’t the alarm cut through his words. Mikey was laughing.

Mikey was _laughing._ And suddenly, it didn’t sound like Mikey’s voice.

“Ahaha _haa!_ You all are _fools!_ ” he shouted, gesturing dramatically, and the new voice itched some part of Raph’s brain that told him he should know it. “Now, thanks to your cooperation, I’ll have the most highly viewed Twitch stream _ever,_ and I’ll _finally_ expose you _mutants_ for what you are! Not just to New York City, but to the _whole world!_ ”

Leo’s jaw dropped onto the floor. “Wait, wait, _what?_ ”

“This is— this was all for a _stream?!_ ” Donnie cried indignantly.

Raph growled, a venomous sound that scared even himself. “What have you done with Mikey?!”

The fake Mikey just smirked smugly at him, and the alarm rang again.

“Um— _um_ — Hey, what happens when this timer runs out?!” Leo yelled, voice panicked, and Raph glanced down at his task list to find it was at five seconds. With another desperate roar, he slammed his hand on the sensor again, to no avail.

Not-Mikey just chuckled evilly again. “Why, the game ends, of course!”

Tears pricked at Raph’s eyes. He did _not_ want to know what that meant.

_4…_

“ _Work,_ thing, _work!_ ” Leo shouted desperately.

_3…_

“Guys, what do we do?!” Donnie cried.

_2…_

A crack resounded through the room, and the timer stopped.

**VICTORY**

**[ CREWMATES ]**

The alarm shut off, and the lights stopped flashing. Raph and Donnie looked at each other.

There was another crack, and Raph whirled around. It came from— from the other side of the window…?

Wait.

Wait, that couldn’t be a window, Raph realized, because they couldn’t actually be in outer space. Which meant—

There was a third crack, and the image splintered, and shattered.

“ _APRIIIILL O’NEEIIILL!!_ ”

Glass scattered through the room, and Raph reacted instinctively, pulling Donnie to his plastron at the same time he turned his shell away from the blast. Behind him, he heard what sounded like two figures landing, and then—

“ _Noo— ack!_ ”

“ _That’s_ for tricking my brothers, creep!”

Raph whipped around so fast his neck hurt, dropping his arms so Donnie could wrestle free, and there, his foot on not-Mikey’s chest, was the _real_ Mikey, and Raph knew that like he knew his own heart was pounding in his throat. Relief flooded his veins so hard he almost collapsed. 

“Mikey!” Leo cried.

Said littlest brother whipped around at his name and leapt over to meet Leo’s hug. “ _Leo!_ Leo, I’m so sorry, are you okay, did he hurt you—”

“Hey, easy there,” Leo laughed. “I’m fine, and it’s not your fault. I’m just glad you’re safe, Mikey.”

The fake Mikey started to his feet, scowling, but froze the moment a mystic baseball bat leveled with his throat, and April stood over him with fire in her eyes. “Nuh-uh. You’re not going anywhere.”

“How’d you guys find us?” Raph said, moving to stand beside April.

“Better question,” Donnie added from her other side, “where _are_ we?”

“Best question,” Leo cut in, dragging the real Mikey behind him to surround the fake one, “who’s this bozo?”

A growl slipped from the downed Imposter’s throat, and with a hiss, steam started pouring from its stomach. Raph leapt back with a surprised yelp as a hatch opened, and out stepped—

“Baxter Stockboy?” Leo said, with an incredulous laugh.

“How’d you get out of boy genius jail?” Mikey added, flicking the boy’s forehead.

“I almost had you guys!” the kid fumed, punching the air, narrowly missing Mikey. “I had you ready to fight at each other’s throats! Why didn’t this work?!”

“Wait,” Raph gasped, “he wasn’t actually streaming this, was he?”

“He was,” April answered, holding up her phone, which showed a Twitch stream comprised of around twelve different cameras that had all turned to static, “but I was the only viewer, and Mikey and I knocked everything out before anyone else found it.”

“What?! _No!_ ” Stockboy cried. “But _Among Us_ is such a popular game! How could I not get more viewers?!”

“You really think you can hold a candle to OfflineTV?” Donnie scoffed.

Mikey kicked at the head of Stockboy’s suit. “Yo, guys, can we get rid of this thing? It’s freaking me out.”

“Me too,” Leo agreed. “We need to get rid of this whole place.”

Donnie sighed, looking around the room almost wistfully. “I guess it wasn’t all a hologram like I thought, but this is honestly more impressive. If you opened this place up to the public, it could really be a hit.”

Stockboy frowned at him, then looked around. “You really think so?”

“Donnie, don’t give the evil kid genius ideas,” Raph said mildly.

“Whoops.”

“Can we get out of here already?” April groaned. “I’m glad you guys are safe and all, but it looks like we have a _lot_ to catch up on, and I’m hungry. We were _supposed_ to meet for pizza.”

At the mention of food, there was a collective growl from all four of the brothers’ stomachs. They looked at each other and laughed sheepishly. 

“Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Mikey shouted, dashing backward through the hole April made in the wall. 

“Hey, actually, let’s order in!” Leo called, following close behind. 

“Just don’t get Hawai’ian!” Donnie yelled. “You hear me, Leo?! Do not order Hawai’ian!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

Raph turned to April and shrugged. “I guess we’re heading home.”

She grinned back at him. “Fine by me.”

Baxter Stockboy watched them go, his scowl deepening by the second. They’d ruined a perfectly good plan, busted a hole in his perfectly good Skeld, thwarted his perfectly amazing Twitch stream— they’d pay for this. He’d find a way to make sure of it.

This time, he’d do it _without_ landing himself in boy genius jail.

Oh, and this time—ooh, _this time_ —he’d _definitely_ be collecting the precious $2.50 a month he’d earn from Twitch subscriptions. (And don’t forget to subscribe to his YouTube channel, too!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you guys enjoyed the fic!!!! jhfghjdf please comment your thoughts i thrive on comments


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